Somya Kaushik has experienced gender discrimination all too often in the legal profession.

Yet the founder of Esq.Me – a LegalTech platform which creates a marketplace for small law firms to acquire big law resources –  has refused to allow it to negatively affect her business ambitions.

In fact, she has been inspired by it, inspired to replace any frustration or anger at the situation in 2017 with a “strong grace” – which she defines as “the ability to cultivate and apply true inner self-confidence and righteousness without the presence of a destructive ego.”

Kaushik’s philosophy has struck a chord with many after she first articulated it in a LinkedIn post five months ago (which has since been viewed almost 1 million times globally and received almost 7,000 likes).

While Kaushik admits that taking to social media in such a manner is “not something I would usually do” her experience in being told by a potential investor that he wouldn’t invest in her company because she was a woman compelled her to share her message with others.

But Kaushik isn’t just holding a light up to the problem of gender discrimination in business, she also has practical principles for how things can be improved.

“Nothing is going to change overnight but having certain objective and procedural guidelines is a good place to start so we can change the mentality,” Kaushik told Legal Geek, when discussing whether positive discrimination is an appropriate solution for redressing the gender imbalance of women in business.

“Because you can’t just say ‘be conscious of your sub-conscious’, certain initiatives need to be established to resolve the way we think.

“This is something I would look to bring in at Esq.Me when we are big enough to make it possible.

“We also have to help ourselves. Women should believe in their own capabilities more. Because we have to first change our perspective of ourselves for other people to change the way they see us.”